begin

Etymology

From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from be- + base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To start, to initiate or take the first step into something.
   I began playing the piano at the age of five. Now that everyone is here, we should begin the presentation.
   Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. 2013-06-29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29
2. (intransitive) To be in the first stage of some situation
   The program begins at 9 o'clock on the dot. I rushed to get to class on time, but the lesson had already begun.
3. (intransitive) To come into existence.

noun

1. (nonstandard) Beginning; start.